Session 8 Roundup

Sapporo, JapanMarch 16, 2015

Japan made it two wins from two today after defeating Finland Photo: WCF/Richard Gray

Canada ended Russia’s 100 percent record while Japan defeated Finland to cause a four-way tie at the top of the rankings after Monday evening's eighth session of round-robin play of the ZEN-NOH World Women's Curling Championship 2015 being staged in the Tsukisamu Gymnasium, Sapporo, Japan.

However, Canada were first on the board with a single point steal in the opening end when an ambitious promote shot by Russian skip Anna Sidorova didn’t come off.

Russia then scored one point in the second end and stole another single point in the third end to take an early 2-1 lead.

Canada's skip Jennifer Jones then gave her team a 3-2 lead in the fourth end when she drew her last stone into the house to score two points.

She built on that with a single point steal in the fifth end and eventually Jones drew the last stone of the game onto the button to win by 7-5.

After her second win of the day, Jones said: "I was happy with how we played - we finally had two games back to back where we played well and made some big shots and some big draws. It was a big win so we’re happy."

On the next sheet, Japan beat Finland by 8-5, emerging from a tight game by hitting for three points in the ninth end before they ran their opponents out of stones.

Switzerland, who sat out the session, were already on a four win and one loss record, and these two results mean that Canada, Japan and Russia now join them in joint top spot.

Scotland played a Norway team still without a win.

The Scottish team started well, splitting the house early in the first end to allow Muirhead a simple draw for two points.

They built on their lead but in the sixth end Norway's skip Kristin Moen Skaslien played a nose-hit to score two points and bring her team back in touch with Scotland, who had a lead of 6-4 at this point.

The Scots finally took out one of two Norwegian stones in the house with the last stone of the tenth end to win by 8-7.

After what was her second win of the day, Scottish skip Eve Muirhead said: "It's been a really good day. We knew we had to come out and get two wins today and it's satisfying that we did. We're pleased, we played well".

The fourth game of this session was a face-off between Scandinavian neighbours Denmark and Sweden.

In the fifth end, Sweden's fourth player Maria Prytz moved her team into a clear 5-2 lead, hitting out a Danish stone for three points.

Sweden eventually won the game by 7-5 when Denmark could only score one point in the tenth end.

During the round robin portion of a competition, teams with the same win-loss record will be listed alphabetically, by their three letter code, and ranked equal.

Results, statistics, news and photos from the ZEN-NOH World Women’s Curling Championship 2015 can be seen here on the World Curling Federation’s official event website: http://wwcc2015.worldcurling.net

Curling fans around the world will be able to follow selected live coverage of the 2015 World Championship events via the World Curling Federation’s YouTube Channel www.youtube.com/WorldCurlingTV